Car servicing necessary?

Iceweasel

Definitely needs a change of air-filter & spark plugs which should help the economy.

A change of pollen filter would make the interior a bit more pleasant too. I come across loads of cars where they have skipped the pollen filter and the car lands up smelling like a wet puppy on damp days.

Brake fluid not so crucial - but I'd personally do it.

fred246

I love the way that brake fluid changes are supposed to be essential but they are always an optional extra in the service. I always imagine the dealers receptionist being trained. "If the customer appears a gullible type sell them a brake fluid change as an optional extra."

AdrianC

fred246 wrote: »

I love the way that brake fluid changes are supposed to be essential but they are always an optional extra in the service. I always imagine the dealers receptionist being trained. "If the customer appears a gullible type sell them a brake fluid change as an optional extra."

No, it's far simpler than that.
Almost all service schedules are time-or-mileage. Brake fluid changes are purely time. Also, if any work's been done on the brake hydraulics, then the fluid has to be changed as part of that work. So your 50k mile service might be 1yr or 3yrs from new, and even if it's 3yrs, the fluid might only be 1yr old.

daveyjp

Brake fluid is a misnomer. The fluid is now actually hydraulic fluid as it used for more than brakes on many modern cars.

It costs about £40 every two years, so hardly expensive in the grand scheme of the cost of running a car.

nickcc

There are two types of maintenance one is maintenance by defect and the other is planned maintenance. Your choice but the cheaper option is usually planned maintenance.

fred246

Garages love doing anything were it can't be proven whether anything has actually been done.
They can do nothing and charge you £50
They can suck a bit of brake fluid out of your reservoir and put a bit of new in and charge you £50 or they can
Spend ages flushing all the old brake fluid out of the pipes and putting new in.
I am afraid I'll keep my £50 in my pocket.

takman

fred246 wrote: »

Garages love doing anything were it can't be proven whether anything has actually been done.
They can do nothing and charge you £50
They can suck a bit of brake fluid out of your reservoir and put a bit of new in and charge you £50 or they can
Spend ages flushing all the old brake fluid out of the pipes and putting new in.
I am afraid I'll keep my £50 in my pocket.

That's why I always do stuff like Oil, filter and brake fluid changes myself. But when I do a brake fluid change I just use an Eezibleed and bleed about 250ml through each caliper, but I usually do this just to make the brakes much firmer.

AdrianC

takman wrote: »

But when I do a brake fluid change I just use an Eezibleed and bleed about 250ml through each caliper, but I usually do this just to make the brakes much firmer.

Apart from the minor detail that you probably aren't actually changing all the fluid, then, you've clearly got some minor ingress of air into the brake hydraulics. Have you considered fixing that?

takman

AdrianC wrote: »

Apart from the minor detail that you probably aren't actually changing all the fluid, then, you've clearly got some minor ingress of air into the brake hydraulics. Have you considered fixing that?

There wasn't any problem with it I just had to do it after the garage changed the brake line and it can't have been bled very well. Then again when I changed a caliper and then again when I did the rear pads because I loosened off the bleed nipple to push the piston back. I always liked to do it fully everytime so the brakes were always like a new car.

But the car died 2 months ago from a slipped cam chain at 196,000 miles.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Clairvoyant MOT tester?
How did he know the brake fluid was old, the spark plugs needed changing etc?